Fideuà

Fideuà is a colorful Valencian and Catalan dish often described as an interpretation of the popular paella. Similar to its more popular counterpart, fideuà employs a variety of seafood ingredients, but instead of rice, it combines them with thin and short pasta called fideo.

The choice of seafood can include many fish and shellfish varieties such as cuttlefish, monkfish, and shrimps. To prepare the dish, pasta is shortly fried, and only later added and cooked in the flavorful saffron-spiced seafood broth. Like paella, fideuà is cooked in a shallow iron pan and it is typically not mixed in order to allow a crispy crust to be formed on the bottom.

It is believed that this Valencian classic originated in 1930 in the city of Gandia, on one of many local fishing boats. In restaurants, it is often served in a pan in which it was prepared, and it is usually shared among a group of people. Before serving, the dish is often topped with chopped parsley and lemon juice, while some prefer to pair it with an aromatic aioli sauce.